Video Edit Magic

CNET Editors' review

Though it lacks the features of big-name programs such as Adobe Premiere, Video Magic is admirably simple and suitable for basic home use. Once you've captured media from a DV camera, a DVD camcorder, or another source, you just drop the video and audio files onto Video Magic's time-line-based interface to start editing. The program provides a healthy number of transitions and effects, such as fades, wipes, and even a picture-in-picture tool. It's a snap to slap together video files and add dissolves, narration, and background music. When you're done, Video Magic can output your movie to any of the major video formats, including AVI, MPEG, and WMV. The program now includes a tool for splitting clips into multiple segments, but we didn't find it all that easy to use. Also, the program lacks a dedicated trimming tool, making it difficult to fine-tune transitions. Overall, Video Magic is best suited for novices who want to get their feet wet before moving on to more full-featured packages.

Publisher's Description

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All User Reviews
  • All versions:

    2.5 stars

    out of 45 votes

    • 5 star: 10
    • 4 star: 3
    • 3 star: 4
    • 2 star: 9
    • 1 star: 19
  • Current version:

    2.0 stars

    out of 2 votes

    • 5 star: 0
    • 4 star: 0
    • 3 star: 0
    • 2 star: 2
    • 1 star: 0
  • My rating:

    0 stars

    Write review

Results 1-2 of 2

  • 2.0 stars

    "Not yet good enough, here's how to improve it"

    July 10, 2012  |   By brainout

    Version: Video Edit Magic 4.47

    Pros

    Except for the cons below, pretty much everything you'd want, this program provides. I've not yet made a video with it, to test for the complaint about crashes. Salient pros:

    1. Allows fullscreen Preview Window, needed for high-resolution Screen Recorder videos.
    2. Uses Pixelan special effects and transitions. Very intuitive Text Title editor.
    3. Allows add-ons, and Editor auto-detected my Pixelan, when it installed. Their help tells you how to get more, and one of the addons is probably on your machine, for Windows Movie Maker: their Fun pack. But I don't see it having detected that, on my machine.
    4. VERY CLEAR HELP. Best I've seen in all vid products I've tested, are the Deskshare help files in both Recorder and Editor. Really good tips on usage.
    5. Conversion options are limited but good ones, with clear explanations of how to configure them.

    Cons

    1. Resolution in fullscreen Preview Window mode is awful, unlike the Screen Recorder Pro (latter is EXCELLENT), for a 1280 x 1024 video. No optionsl resolution setting. Preview Window is not floating, else.
    2. Only basic text positioning and formatting for shadow and outline; no animation.
    3. No addon for animated text is shown. They could make money if they provided animation as addon. The window the addon uses a tree structure at left, which wastes space. This window should be made floating.
    5. They only allow PCM for audio, even if Xvid conversion, and even when the original video you're editing, uses MP3. This is bad, as it forces a video to have a larger size than needed. Since an Xvid configuration includes an audio setting, they should at least allow a pass-through of that setting.
    6. Menu Icons are way too big; you can't position icons on the same line as the Menu text, which wastes space.

    Summary

    I matched the #s for pros and cons to each other in the above listing, since the company makes both Editor and Screen Recorder products. Apparently the programmers for the Recorder Pro are not the same as for the Editor, what a pity. The latter needs the former's skills. I mean, if you make Screen Recording Software, then the guys making the Editor Software need to be on the same page. But are not, so whatever you made using the Screen Recorder, shows up badly, in the Editor. I emailed Deskshare about this, in order to decide if I'll buy the program. Will report back if I get a good reply.

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  • 2.0 stars

    "too many crashes"

    February 27, 2012  |   By MrTwoSticks

    Version: Video Edit Magic 4.47

    Pros

    The software can put together a video... very slowly.

    Cons

    Had not evaluated program long enough before purchasing. Using program I had to remember to "save" my work as often as possible. Example: using or trying to use the 'pan-zoom' feature always caused a crash. Frustrated, I looked about and began trying Sony's Vegas Movie studio HD 11. So sorry I had spent $$ on VEMagic. Movie studio: few or no crashes; much easier for newbie to use. Much preferable to VEnon-Magic.

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Results 1-2 of 2

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